Iran Executes Man for ‘Enmity Against God’

Amnesty International is lambasting Iran for executing a man on Sunday who was convicted of “enmity against God,” calling it “a perversion of justice.”

Gholamreza Khosravi Savajani, 49, was also charged with providing financial aid to the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran, or PMOI — an exile opposition group that seeks the removal of the theocratic Islamic regime, Reuters reported, quoting the semi-official Fars news agency.

Raha Bahreini, an Iran researcher with Amnesty International told TheBlaze Monday morning: "Amnesty International condemns the execution of Gholamreza Khosravi Savajani as a perversion of justice.”

“He was wrongfully executed after grossly unfair judicial proceedings that were not only in breach of international law but also of Iran's own laws and procedures, including the provisions of the new Penal Code that did not define the acts committed by Gholamreza Khosravi Savajani as a capital crime,” Bahreini said in an email.

“By taking away the life of a 49-year-old man on a trumped-up charge of ‘enmity against God,’ Iranian authorities have yet again displayed a callous disregard for human life, leaving Gholamreza Khosravi Savajani's family and the larger human rights community in shock and sorrow.”

Just hours before the weekend execution, Amnesty International had urged Iranian authorities to cancel the capital sentence.

Twitter users voiced their outrage online and posted photos of Savajani:

Amnesty Int'l described the execution sentence of Mr. #Khosravi as a violation of "international law" @amnesty #Iran pic.twitter.com/uvMCfr6LDb

— Camp Ashraf (@campashraf) June 1, 2014

Savajani’s family was summoned on Saturday to Raja’i Shahr Prison near Tehran on a visit outside the usual visiting hours, a move that indicated the execution was imminent.

The London-based human rights group said that Savajani had been held for more than 40 months in solitary confinement in various detention centers.

Iranian authorities consider the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahidin-e-Khalq, or MEK, to be a terrorist group. It took part in the Iranian revolution which overthrew the Shah in 1979, but later broke off from Islamic clerics who rule the country.

Until September 2012, the group was designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.

According to Amnesty International, Iran executes more people than any other country besides China. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported earlier this year that executions in Iran had risen since the election of President Hassan Rouhani, who has frequently been described as a “moderate.”